ZK-SNARKs: Vitalik Buterin Says Ethereum Can Get ‘Huge’ Scaling Without Plasma, State Channels

Ethereum co-creator, Vitalik Buterin has described how speeds of 500 transactions per second can be achieved on the Ethereum blockchain using ZK-SNARKs.

ZK-SNARK, short for Zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive Argument of Knowledge, is a cryptography technology that allows parties to verify a transaction is accurate without having to reveal the content. This tech is used as the backbone of the ZCash protocol.

Buterin explained in an ethereum research forum that the technology can be used to mass-validate transactions thereby increasing the on-chain capacity of Ethereum.

He wrote:

“We can actually scale asset transfer transactions on ethereum by a huge amount, without using layer 2’s that introduce liveness assumptions (eg. channels, plasma), by using ZK-SNARKs to mass-validate transactions.”

He stated that the system uses a relayer as a class of user, along with the transactor node. For its application in the ethereum blockchain, he explained that the relayer will aggregate transactions from various transactions and only published the ZK-SNARK which proves their validity. This way, the transaction data, no matter how much, is compressed to a small size on the blockchain.

According to him, this method can increase the speed by 24 times for ETH transactions and 50 times for transactions on ethereum-based tokens of ERC-20 standard.

Ethereum Can Be Scaled Without Fancy Technology

While ethereum developers are faced with the challenge of developing scaling technologies, Buterin has also advocated for more efficiency and scaling options that may not involve “fancy technologies” like Casper and Sharding.

Parity developer, Afri Schoedon upped the ante last week when he called on developers to stop deploying decentralized apps (DApps) on the ethereum network because it is running at capacity.

Again, Buterin was quick to respond with a method of improving efficiency through gas optimization. He also advised developer to look towards level 2 scaling proposals like State Channels and Plasma.

Smartereum reported earlier that the Ethereum Foundation will implement State Channels and Plasma scaling options before the end of this year.

Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.